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Welcome to my blog. I am honored to have you visit. I hope you'll find my articles a blessing. I welcome your input and especially comments and questions.

I write as a Christian from Jerusalem, Israel about Biblical subjects.

I am particularly interested in the subjects of children, families, women's issues, corporal punishment, science and nature as these subjects relate to the Holy Scriptures.

For more information, see my website: www.biblechild.com

With every good wish - Samuel Martin

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Family Purity - “Greet one another with a holy kiss”

Family Purity - “Greet one another with a holy kiss”

I was on my way to Jerusalem
last Friday morning and as I waited for a bus to come, I saw a car stop in
front of me and a young man about 18 got out and greeted another young man
right in front of me. He did so using the traditional Arab cheek to cheek
approach. Generally speaking, you find men doing it to relatives or friends at
special occasions or when they have not seen each other in some time. Normally,
the parties will “kiss” the other persons cheek two or three times, but for
relatives or very special events like weddings or the like, you will see them
“kissing” each other more than two or three times. Such was the case of these
two young men who looked as if they were not related, but that they had not
seen each other in some time. I heard what they were talking about and one boy
told the other that he was going to visit a nearby village and his friend
insisted very vigorously that he allow him to take him to his destination.
Then, they both got in the car and left.

I thought about this event
when I attended the Independence Day celebration at the US Consulate in
Jerusalem on July 4 (2007). What a kaleidoscope of people from all different races and
backgrounds: Israeli and Palestinian politicians including the new Palestinian
Prime Minister among many others) from all political spectrums including the
Jerusalem mayor (who I happily introduced myself to); religious leaders from
all of the Christian denominations (about 13 are represented in Jerusalem) and
all of Jerusalem’s business community were also there. It was quite an event.

However, one thing happened
to me that echoed back to these two young men greeting each other and this
concerned one of the people that I met at the event. While passing through the
assembled crowd, I noticed an elderly Orthodox Jewish man sitting in a
wheelchair and I went over to him and introduced myself. Of course, after being
introduced, I thought that I recognized who this man was. His name was Rabbi
Menachem Porush. Rabbi Porush has just retired from politics and was a member
of the Israeli parliament for over 35 years. Rabbi Porush is still an
exceedingly powerful political figure in Israel today and his son Rabbi Meir
Porush is currently a member of the Israeli parliament. After introducing
myself, I talked a little bit about my background and immediately had some
common ground with him. He was attended by a younger Rabbi, who I only came to know as “Rabbi David.”
They spoke together in Yiddish and then Rabbi David translated my comments to
him. He was especially interested in what I had to say after I told him a story
about my contact with one of the leading Rabbinical families in New York, that
of Rabbi Moses Feinstein, who was one of the leading Rabbis in the world before
his death in 1986. He was the de facto leading scholar of Orthodox Judaism in
the USA at the time he passed away. I had some contact with his son, Rabbi
Reuven Feinstein, in 1996 when I was first doing research for my first book.

What happened next was very
interesting because it was a very subtle event that only one familiar with the
Jewish faith will understand and appreciate. While I was talking to Rabbi
Porush, a young couple came up and also started to speak with him. The young
woman, who could not have been more than 30 years old, reached out her hand to
shake the hand of Rabbi Porush and he politely declined! A short comment from
Rabbi David ensued saying simply: “I’m sorry, but he’s a Rabbi.” There was no
further explanation, but I knew what had happened.

Why did Rabbi Porush not
allow that young woman to shake his hand? It comes down to the rules of family
purity that are outlined in Leviticus 18. There are very specific rules that
are laid out in Leviticus 18 concerning, believe it or not, men and women even
shaking hands (among other things). The fact is, Rabbi Porush could not take
the chance that the young woman was in a state ritualistically according to
Jewish law that would have designated herself as not “clean.” Had he have
touched her, he could not have been sure that she was not, so he would have
then become “unclean” and would have had to visit a ritual purification bath.
(rituals baths – known as mikvahs are all over the place
here in Israel and they are used regularly by religious Jews in the performance
of their faith.) It may sound silly in a way, but the issue of family purity
found in Leviticus 18 and found in other sections as well is the reason why he
would not touch her hand. [Some of you might be reminded of this in the film
The Seventh Sign, which I have brought up before. When Demi Moore’s character
goes to meet the Rabbi to help her translate a letter in a mystical Hebrew
language, she knocks on the door. Then the Rabbi answers and she asks some
questions and then touches the Rabbi. He immediately closes the door expressing
his anger at her actions and will not have anything to do with her after that
(because he thought that he was made “unclean.”) Then she meets the young
Jewish boy who then gets involved with her in the rest of the film and he explains
that she was not supposed to touch his father (once again because of the family
purity laws).

So, now how does all of this
relate to the issue that serves as the heading for this short section: “Greet
each other with a holy kiss?” The point is, we find this phrase used by Paul
four times. These are: Romans 16:16; I Corinthians 16:20; II Corinthians 13:12
and I Thessalonians 5:26. Now isn’t it interesting that Paul encouraged these
Gentile churches to greet each other in this fashion. Certainly, they did touch
each other in the process and more importantly, Paul himself must have been
“greeting people with a holy kiss”; that is, he was physically touching Gentile
people! Note in I Corinthians 16:19, he even mentions “Aquila and Prisca (a
woman) and then he urges them to greet each other in this fashion. Isn’t it
interesting that Paul seemingly was not in these occasions adhering to the
Jewish laws of family purity, which were essential elements of the life of a
religious Jew in the first century. These laws are still in force on all
religious Jews today who are required to rigorously keep them, but a
preliminary examination of these texts indicates that Paul was not adhering to
the laws of family purity found in Judaism very rigorously if at all. This may have
been different when he was in Jerusalem and undertaking religious observances
associated with the Temple, but when he was in Gentile areas, he seems to not
have been keeping kosher when it came to family purity laws.

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About Me

Samuel Martin was born in England and is the youngest child of Dr. Ernest L. and Helen R. Martin, who are both Americans. He lived in the UK for the first 7 years of his life before moving to the USA with his family at age 7. He lived in the USA until 2001 when he married a native Israeli and relocated to live in Jerusalem. He and his wife, Sonia, have 2 daughters.
His experience with biblical scholarship began at an early age. His father initiated a program in conjunction with Hebrew Univ. and Prof. Benjamin Mazar, where over a 5 year period, some 450 college students came to work on an archaeological excavation in Jerusalem starting in 1969. Since that first trip, Samuel has visited Israel on 14 different occasions living more than 5 years of his life in the country. He has toured all areas of Israel as well as worked in several archaeological excavations.
Today, he has begun his academic career publishing 2 books dealing with biblical issues.
I write regularly on biblical subjects with a particular interest in children, families, nature, science and the Bible,and gender in the Biblical context.